US ready to accept thousands of Syrian refugees

A Syrian refugee woman speaks to media at a camp in Terbol in the Bekaa Valley (Reuters) / Reuters

More than two million Syrians have fled their war-torn country, with many settling in nearby Lebanon and Jordan. Now, the US will open its doors to 2,000 of “the most vulnerable” Syrian refugees – as long as they pass a lengthy background screening.

Two thousand Syrians will be granted the opportunity to live in
the US, marking a significant increase from the approximately 90
Syrian refugees the US admitted over the last two years,
according to Foreign Policy’s The Cable.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 3.5 million Syrian
refugees will be in the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon,
Turkey, Iraq and Egypt by the end of the year, with 1.9 million
more in desperate need of assistance. The death toll in Syria
continues to rise, with over 4,400 people killed during Ramadan
this year.

The Obama administration is responding to the rapidly
deteriorating conditions by agreeing to take in 2,000 Syrian war
victims who will be given permanent residence status. Even though
the number will represent only a fraction of a per cent of Syrian
refugees in need of assistance, the administration’s decision
marks a major shift in policy.

“Referrals will come within the next four months. We will need
to interview people and perform security and medical checks,”
Kelly Clements, the State Department’s assistant secretary for
Population, Refugees and Migration, told Foreign Policy.

But the chosen victims – many of whom are expected to be women
and children – won’t be leaving the country anytime soon. Due to
the time it takes to process their applications, “we’re not
likely to see Syrian refugees into those numbers before well into
2014,” Clements said.

That means the applicants will be forced to endure
another cold winter and several more months in a country
plagued by violence and bloodshed.

“It’s 90 degrees now, but in a few months it’s going to snow
and people are going to be freezing,” said Noah Gottschalk,
Oxfam America’s senior humanitarian policy advisor.

The application process is expected to take months because of the
State Department’s extensive background screenings. US officials
will carefully select refugees who appear to have no ties to
anyone with terrorist sympathies. Even though infants and young
children are unlikely to be terrorists themselves, the concern is
that they might have relatives in Al-Qaeda who would then have an
easier chance of entering the US.The CIA this week announced
that the greatest threat to US national security would be the
prospect of having Al-Qaeda replace the Bashar Assad regime.

Refugees must also show signs of vulnerability, and Clements said
that the most eligible applicants are those “exposed to
everything from torture to gender-based violence to serious
medical conditions.” They must also have no intentions of
ever returning to Syria.

"Refugees are subject to an intensive security screening
process involving federal intelligence, law enforcement, defense,
and homeland security agencies," a State Department official
said. "The US government makes every possible effort to uphold
and enhance the security screening aspects of the US Refugee
Admissions Program. Refugees are among the most carefully
screened of individuals traveling to the United States."

About 6.8 million Syrians are currently in need of humanitarian
assistance. Although permanent resettlement will help 2,000 lucky
victims, it will hardly make a dent in the overall suffering of
the millions who are fighting for survival, and it will hardly
compare to the 564,000 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon and
the 454,000 in Jordan.

“We are exceedingly frustrated to be quite honest,”
Clements said. “Because we can’t keep up with the humanitarian
need especially inside Syria.”